Day 42 Shotover jet and farewell New Zealand

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Our last day in New Zealand and weather terrible. Plans for today had included doing the Shotover jet boat ride, the skyline gondola and the steamboat ride on the lake. But with very little visibility we decided that we would just do the Shotover this morning and see how the day panned out.

We started the day with a hotel buffet breakfast. Haven't had one of them for ages, and have to say the Crowne Plaza have got it sussed. You can even make yourself a pot of tea with loose tea! Looking forward to tomorrows even though I will need to be up by 6.30 to use it before we leave for the airport. Not sure if it was the best idea to stuff ourselves before heading out on a jetboat ride!

The Shotover jet ride advertises itself as the worlds best jet boat ride. You are taken from town up to Shotover river. This rides unique selling point is that it is the only one that is allowed to go up the Shotover river gorge and this does make a massive amount of difference I would think (obviously I only did this one!). The ride is about 25 minutes and it takes you at high speed up and down the river, doing 360 degree nose turns as you go. These are fun but the real thrill seeking element is the skill of the driver as he pulls you nose first into rocks and cliffs at high speed, where you feel you will crash any time. Also he goes over very shallow water, it needs only 4 inches to operate but still a shock looking over the side with not much water there as you zoom along at 80 kms per hour. Luckily we didn't buy the video so none of the family will be subjected to the sight of my stupid faces! Fantastic fun ride! We did stay behind at the bank to take some shots of other boats going by, so if you see anyone waving in these shots they aren't us! Would thoroughly recommend it and you will get wet if you sit in the outside as Ian can testify.

Back into town to look for a coffee to warm us up (it's really feeling like a ski resort by this point) but were waylaid by a bunch of kids playing rock on the square and some big band tunes. They were really good. Brisbane school on a tour of New Zealand complete with tour hoodie and enthusiastic cheerleader getting everyone in the spirit.

Once I couldn't feel my fingers we finally went to look for that coffee shop but it was 1pm by then so instead found a bar with tapas!!!!

Then the rain came and it really did feel miserable so we became proper middle aged travellers and went back to the hotel to make a cup of tea and catch up on the cricket. And if one more local had told me it was going to be nice tomorrow then not sure what I would have done!

Over the last couple of days I think we have definitely started to move into thinking about going home. Probably as we are going home, starting with our move back to Sydney in the morning. We even decided on our Xmas day theme today and informed our guests although I must order the turkey if I plan to feed them anything.

So apart from a sneaky happy hour cocktail we sat in our room before heading out for dinner at the 'Botswana butcher' Top quality meat. Ian finally got round to trying the venison! We can also tell it's time to go back as we seem to be eating more and more!!

So time to do a final catch up on my blog while we still have unlimited internet before going back to Sydney tomorrow. Bye bye New Zealand. You were amazing even if your weather has been a bit debatable (at least in South Island). 30 degrees tomorrow in Sydney.

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Photos

Lindsay ready to go
Life jacket and knee length waterproof, very sexy

Jet boat
Coming at yah thru the Shotover gorge

Ready to nose spin
360 degree spins right next to rock faces

Queenstown lake
Clouded over but very pretty

Lunch
Hiding from the rain

Dinner
One of our best. Beautiful steak and venison

Sunset over Queenstown
Yes we know..... Tomorrow it will be a lovely day.......aaaaaaaaah

Desert
Not that we have become obsessed with food!